Excellent, a Must See

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Brilliant and touching

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

I'm used to seeing amazing performances by Jake Gyllenhaal as we all are, but what he did in Demolition was just something else. This was definitely his movie and was the focal point. A must see.

What a good concept. Somebody dies, and it frees you up to start a whole new life. I love it. In my case it wasn't a physical death, but the death of a marriage, that freed me up to live the way I really wanted to live. And yeah, Jake G. is great in this, but don't underestimate the other actors, the screenwriter, and the director. I think EVERYBODY combined to do a great job here. I don't know how these creative people do it. The film is so off beat, yet so perfect. The creative team must really be a bunch of weird, but really great, people. I guess not everybody will like this film, but I loved it.

Demolition seems to be a rare type of film in which we are not used to seeing in Hollywood these days. The film has a more real atmosphereand feel to it where the characters aren't necessarily good people, but we do connect and rootforthe leads. Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a very sounded performance as he carries the film together. Described as a strange film, this film isn't predictable which is a good thing, as we do not know what to expect as each scene comes together. The film shifts tones on almost a scene to scene basis, and it's easy to overlook how quickly a director can lose track of these tonal shifts. But director Jean-Marc Vallée never puts a foot out of line. There isn't a single shot that feels out of place. Vallée's other gift is the David O Russell-like ability to extract great performances out of his cast, as this film like somewhat of a O'Russell film. Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the most consistently brilliant American star working right now. The fact that he has only been nominated for an Oscar once is something, but perhaps his best has yet to come.

It's difficult to fully understand what writer Bryan Sipe and director/co-producer Jean-Marc Vallee we thinking when they fashioned this interesting but ultimately unsatisfying movie. As an examination of grief and the different ways we humans react to it – it might have been effective if it didn't continually stray into so many over the top messy situations. There are just too many foolish plot devices that lead this so-called study into the unbelievable. Firstly, we have to try to understand our lead becoming disenfranchised with his life after the death of his young wife in an auto accident – but it's difficult to sympathize - as it was made rather clear he tended to be this way before the fatal accident. In fact, it looked seriously like his marriage was headed for divorce because of his apparent detachments. Things quickly unravel further when he begins to demolish household items in his very pleasant modern house but, gets worse when this behaviour also carries over to items in the homes of those who reach out to him. Far too many overly strange occurrences drag this story off the rails into pretty much of a dishevelled mess. One particularly unpleasant sequence has him taking the foul-mouthed, troubled, and sexually 'confused' 15yr old son of a newly acquired female acquaintance to his home, then proceeds to smash the entire premises to pieces with demolishing sledgehammers – encouraging the lad to join in the carnage as if it were some 'fun' task. This, being just one of several irresponsible acts that either involves destruction or encouraging the young lad to shoot at him with a handgun - while he wears a bullet proof vest! In their attempts to be topical, controversial, or 'off-the-wall' these movie makers tend to sabotage their own work – assuring it becoming the failure it certainly was. Only redeeming features are some OK performances, photography, and use of a few good song selections.Those who look for movies that deliberately set out to "rock the boat" will think this pretty good – but, with a box office return of around $4million out of a $10million budget - it would seem most found it unsettling or ultimately boring. Pity, with a little more controlled treatment it may have been far more involving.